Manifiesto: We don’t want fascists in Clot, Barcelona, or anywhere! Shut down the Nazi ‘social centre’

We recently discovered a fascist ‘social centre’ in the neighbourhood of Clot, Barcelona. At first the fascists called it ‘Militia’; now they hide behind the name ‘Tramuntana’.

Located at C/ Independencia 333, the centre is directly inspired by Casa Pound Italy (CPI), which belongs to a current in Italian fascism associated with terrorist attacks. CPI focuses on attracting young people by offering music, drink, sporting activities, etc., just like Hitler’s Storm troopers did in the 30’s.

Gianluca Iannone, the public face of CPI, openly describes himself as a fascist. He stated that “Fascism was the most beautiful experience in the history of Italy.”

The thinker behind CPI, Gabrielle Adinolfi, is a historic Italian Fascist who has collaborated with the Hungarian Nazi and anti-Semitic party, Jobbik. Adinolfi has spent years pushing the idea of promoting fascism using what he calls ‘metapolitics’; activities that are not explicitly political but help to create a zone of influence for a controlling fascist group.

CPI openly pays tribute to Mussolini… the same Mussolini that bombed Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. Iannone and Adinolfi of CPI were to participate in the opening ceremony of the Nazi centre in Clot last January, but it was cancelled thanks to protests.

The centre also has clear links to Platform for Catalonia (PxC), a fascist party which pretends to be democratic. The centre is promoted by Alberto Sanchez, a former soldier and currently a PxC councillor in L’Hospitalet, a town right next to Barcelona. The premises are rented in the name of Rebecca Berenguer, a PxC candidate at the last council elections. And above all, at the opening ceremony, the third speaker, alongside the two fascists from Casa Pound, was to be Enrique Ravello, a longstanding Spanish Nazi, and currently head of international relations for PxC.

With this background, the attempts to argue that the centre is apolitical, and dedicated to innocent leisure and cultural activities, are an insult to our intelligence.

And if during the few weeks that it has been open, we have no evidence of violent acts directly attributable to the centre, all previous experience regarding such places shows they that increase fascist and racist violence in the area. While there was a fascist centre in southeast London, racist attacks in the area rose by 210%. A supporter of CPI, who frequented a centre like that in Clot, committed a racist double murder in Florence last 13 December.

The neo-Nazi attack in the Catalan town of Manresa on the night of 23 March, that left one adolescent in coma and seriously injured two others, shows where fascism leads to. We condemn this aggression, we express our solidarity with the young people who were attacked, and we denounce the apparent impunity enjoyed by the attacks of this kind. This impunity contrasts sharply with the way the authorities pressurise the movements that favour a pluralistic and democratic society, and oppose fascism: for example, the fines adding up to about €30,000 imposed on persons accused of involvement in demonstrations against PxC in Salt (Girona) and in Barcelona, during the summer and autumn of 2011.

If the growth of Casa Pound in Italy has already led to the first murders, among other violent acts, it is obvious that we can not allow fascism take root: neither in Clot, in Barcelona, or anywhere else.

We declare our support for the unified, broad, grass roots campaign, launched by Unitat contra el Feixisme i el Racisme (Unity against Fascism and Racism) —along with many other organisations in the neighbourhood; associations and groups in the Barcelona district of Sant Martí and the surrounding neighbourhoods; and organisations across the whole Barcelona region— to eliminate this fascist threat.

We call for the solidarity of organisations in Catalonia and the Spanish state, and for them to join the campaign to warn of the danger of this Nazi centre.

We support the united demonstration “We don’t want fascists in Clot, Barcelona, or anywhere! Shut down the Nazi centre” on Saturday May 5, at 11am, in the Plaça del Mercat del Clot.